New Collective
by stephenopolos
Summary: A young man gains the power of the collective, in the form of replicator nanites and protoss style technology. Inspired by East Bridge.
1. 01: Waking up

I was walking home. Completely normal you know, walking. It wasn't like it was a bad day. A bit on the cold side, but not biting. I remember how bright everything was from the snow. I recall looking up and seeing it. A truck coming down the road; I remember thinking it was going a bit fast for a snowy side street. Then I remember noticing the kid. A boy about nine all bundled up standing in the street, why was he in the street. I recall doing something completely uncharacteristic for me. You see, I wasn't that nice of a person in life. A bit selfish, a bit unobservent. I was consumed with the latest technology, my job, my pitiful excuse for a life. Though living wasn't really much all things considered.

I jumped. I rushed forward and pushed the boy across the icy roadway. But in the process slipped on the ice myself and was crushed as the truck failed to stop. Now I'm somewhere dark. It's not cold. I try to take a breath. Breathing doesn't work. I try to feel anything. It's not warm. I'm panicking.

A voice whispers my name. It's asking me something but if I could I'd be hyperventilating right now in a full blown panic attack. The voice sighs. A moment later the sensation of being able to breathe returns and I feel a little better. I'm still panicking but not quite as badly. The voice tries again. I try to respond but I have the distinct impression that I'm somehow lacking a mouth. All my thoughts are a jumbled mess and even I probably wouldn't be able to make out a coherent thought from the inside of my skull.

Like water to a dehydrated man in a desert, light floods my vision and I get the impression I now have eyes and a mouth, movement is limited but I'm not completely frozen. My thoughts begin to clear. The voice returns calls my name again and asks it's question. This time I understand and can respond. Though my voice sounds strange, somewhat hollow to me as I do so.

"Would you like a second chance? The power to make a difference?" is the question.

I respond. "Yes, and yes"

The voice asks another question, "What would you do with your power?"

"Protect those who can't protect themselves." I respond.

The voice is silent. A moment later memories flood my mind. Another life, a different life. It is greatly confusing. I try to remember something from my past. All I get is vague notions of who I was from before. These new memories, they're somehow alien, they just don't feel familiar, like they're not really mine. A moment of confusion passes over me. The new memories fit into place with the old, like the merging of two different colors of paint to make a different color. I take ownership of the new memories and suddenly the old memories become clear again. I'm no longer the same person I once was. I'm somehow a combination of the two sets. My old life and memories have a slightly stronger hold over me than the new ones by a few years but not much.

The new me is a nineteen year old based on the memories. I have a family. A mother, a younger sister and brother. I search my memories for the names frantically. Edriss, Merina, Sameth I recall with a sigh wondering what happened to them. The voice speaks up again.

"Now that you are whole again, I ask you once more, what you would do with power?" it sounds from all around like the combination of rustling leaves and something vaguely digital.

"Protect those I love. Protect my family. Fight back against the creatures that treat us like animals." I practically growl.

"Good answer, young man, you shall receive your gift and return." at the final word the sound of rustling leaves and mechanical humming didn't die. My chest grew warm the feeling spreading slowly throughout my body. It grew hotter and started to become painful. My mind feels like its on fire. Just when it reaches the point where I feel any more will drive me insane I black out.

I don't know how much time has passed, I ache all over. I slowly open my eyes. Everything seems a thousand times clearer than it's ever been. My mind races as I examine the ceiling above.

"Amelius?" The soft voice indicates someone has noticed that I'm are awake.

"What happened?" I croak. My throat feels odd and my voice has a hint of distortion around the 'hap' in happened, vaguely digital. I peripherally register pain from the back of my head, my chest, side, and arms.

"You were caught by falling debris from the building we were in while hiding from the wraith." she responds.

My memory is somewhat fragmented, the scene flashes before my eyes. "oh"

"Ancestors be thanked that you are still among the living my son. We did not know if you would survive."

"Are they gone?" I ask.

"The culling ended this morning. The city is in ruins, many were taken."

I remember this happening ten years ago, my father was taken the last time. The pattern has held for as long as any can remember, every ten years the darts come and destroy what the people of this planet, my people have built. They sweep away the living in beams of white light.

I wonder what the voice was talking about when it mentioned power. A glowing text appears in front of my vision. If I had lacked the memories of my old life on earth I would have shrunk from the event. Now however, I am curious.

The text read: System loading.

A moment later the text disappeared. My mind is flooded with information. I know that there is damage to my ribcage. It hurts to breathe because one of my ribs is broken and dangerously close to puncturing a lung. I have a thirty-four percent fracture to the base of my skull. A display pops up. Apparently I have one hundred units of something abbreviated to ZPE. The dialog is a request to use twenty-five units of ZPE for repairs to my body.

I authorize the request. A few moments later and there's a curious tingling near the back of my skull and in my chest. The display shows the fragmented rib being dissolved and rebuilt. It slowly becomes easier to breathe. The dull ache in the back of my head since I woke up is fading as well. The redness from my chest and head fade from the virtual representation of my body. Only ten units of ZPE drained. I wonder what the rest was for, the dialog did ask for twenty-five. A moment later I feel the change throughout the rest of my body. My pores expel the toxins picked up from a lifetime of living in a society on the verge of an industrial revolution. The pollution from the factories and the decennial bombardment by darts.

I feel better than I've ever felt in either lifetime. I question in my mind what it meant by power again. A moment later an information sheet appears overlayed over my vision.

Executor of the Aesurotoss collective.

Health: 100 - Armor: 0 - Shield: 0

ZPE: 75 - ZPE regen: 2/hour - Psi provided: 5

Abilities:

Build Probe - 20 ZPE 1 psi

Self-teleport: 15 ZPE teleport to collective member or within line of site.

Temporary power to building: 2 ZPE/sec

Something jostles in my memory. In my previous life on earth I remember playing a game where there was a race called the protoss. It was from a game called Starcraft. But the protoss were an individualist society that only acted as a collective through the racial psychic gestalt. They remained individuals even though connected. I shudder hoping there aren't any zerg or terran for that matter. As weak as I currently am I would be no match for a terran dominion let alone a swarm of zerg.

I've got ten years until the next culling. With any hope I can have this planet so armored by the time those ten years are up that I can begin spreading to other planets and hopefully push back the wraith threat.

Looking over at my mother who has patiently waited while I sat there processing all that's happened I move to get out of bed. "I need materials, something metal some sort of plastic."

"You really shouldn't be getting up you were seriously injured." She tells me almost ordering me to lay back down as I wave her off.

"I'm doing much better now, and I need a shower or something I feel disgusting just laying here." I say looking down at the exposed skin where a layer of oils and impurities collected from the healing process that removed all the pollution from living in a society fighting to advance past the industrial stage.

"The power hasn't been restored yet so you'll have to make do with a cold shower. There should be plenty in the debris just lying around." She says with a hint of curiosity. Thankfully it's summer so a cold shower isn't to great of a problem.

I leave the bandages on not wanting to explain why there is not an angry wound underneath them anymore. Pushing myself up I settle my face face into a grimace as if the pain I felt previously is still there and not gone. I wonder if psi is anything like what the protoss used in the game the other me played back on earth. The ZPE resource is something new though.

I look at the status of my ZPE in the corner of my HUD that only I can see. Given the slow regen rate I have no cooldown on my abilities but I am limited by how much ZPE my body can produce at a time to power them.

After a brief and very cold shower I make my way to the beam of metal that fell on me almost killing me. A pool of silvery nanites collects in my palm taking with it twenty units of ZPE. I drop them onto the pile of scrap metal, plastic, and rubber insulated wiring. The pile begins to dissolve. A short moment later I notice an opaque blue shield has formed slowly absorbing the material until it reaches about a meter in diameter hovering about half a foot above the ground it holds a decent chunk of the debris within.

In my mental hud there is something of a countdown timer with an option to cancel. I walk back to my makeshift bed where my mother and younger siblings are waiting. I'm down to fifty-five ZPE. While I don't quite feel as though I absolutely need to eat. My stomach does feel somewhat empty so I sit with my family around the makeshift emergency kit and emergency rations. I quietly gnaw on the dried meat that holds little flavor even with my recently enhanced senses. It tastes mostly like the process used to remove all of it's moisture for packaging. That and the nutrient soak it had to enrich it with minerals and vitamins.

As I drink down a cup of broth to wash away the taste from the meat I notice the measurement for ZPE has gone up a point thirty minutes early. It seems that the metabolic process is able to help regenerate some spent energy. Though I can't glutton myself because one, lack of resources would end up starving my family which would be bad, and two I can only fit so much of this food down my throat without gagging on the taste.

The countdown timer says the probe should be finished in another thirty minutes. The build time on that thing, I don't know if I expected it to be shorter or longer.

"Don't touch the glowing blue ball in the other room it might shock you." I gently warn my younger siblings and mother. "It'll fade in about thirty minutes, if any of you are up when it does wake me."

For having just greeted consciousness after a long time recovering I feel exhausted. Returning to the makeshift bed, I lie down and wonder just what my shiny new probe in the other room can do. I drift off to sleep.

A short time later I find myself being shaken awake. I check the chronometer that's appeared in the top left of my hud it's managed to synchronize itself with local time. It's sometime in the morning five hours and thirty minutes into a twenty-six hour day.

I yawn myself awake. My little sister has curled up next to me and fallen asleep, my brother is the one who shook me awake. Mother has gone out into the city to see if she can help with the clean up efforts and isn't back yet.

"What are you doing awake Sam?" I ask carefully keeping my tone from sounding either patronizing or scolding.

"Couldn't sleep." The thirteen year old shrugs. "your whatever it is in the other room has been finished for a while now."

"Thanks," I yawn again, "Help me move her without waking her up." I say looking down at my sleeping sister.

The redhead shrugs, "Sure" and carefully leans forward to pull her off of me and gently set her back onto the makeshift mattress as I slide out from under the blanket.

Sameth yawns, "I guess I am tired after all."

"Lie down I think I'm awake for the day." I tell him pointing at the bed I just vacated. Sameth is too tired to argue and crawls in next to our sister. A few minutes later I hear him softly snoring.

Walking into the other room I examine my new probe. It's a grey blue color instead of the gold I've traditionally associated with the protoss. It definitely carries some of their design aesthetic. Though it seems somewhat blocky as if part of it is made out of smaller blocks. It's a merging of two designs the first one I recognize obviously protoss but the second is unfamiliar. It's humming quietly as it floats above the floor the gently glowing blue emitter about waist height. I reach a hand towards it and encounter a resistance about where the blue sphere stopped last night. It's not a solid resistance like an invisible wall, instead it feels like it has some give, like a pillow. So I keep pushing and with a soft static noise my hand is allowed to go through the barrier. Touching the surface of the probe a silvery substance comes to the surface and flows over my hand sinking back into my flesh.

My ZPE goes up five units. Providing material for the construction process seems to have reduced the cost and returned some of the nanites used in construction. There's a new icon in the corner of my screen with a sprite image of a probe and the number one next to it. Mentally selecting the image brings up a new dialog window similar to the one with my stats.

Probe

Health: 10 - Shield: 50 - Health/Shield regen rate: 3/second

Attack: 5-10 - Attack rate: 1/second

Abilities:

Build menu - Adv. Build Menu - Gather

I select the build menu, the majority of options are greyed out not letting I see them however there are three at the top. Potentiae converter, Command tower, and Outpost. Each one gives a brief description of the building and it's costs both in terms of resources and ZPE. The command tower and outpost can be built and run without a converter but I will need the potentiae converter anyway as it creates and recharges the power crystals that are used for everything. Not to mention it can act as a wireless power station.

I'm going to need a place to build all this. There's a forest outside the city mostly empty and if I remember correctly an abandoned mine. I lead the probe out into the early morning chill. Directing it to the mine, I instruct it to gather enough resources from the mine and build the power conversion facility just inside the forest. It heads into the mine and begins scanning for metals and other useful resources.

I return to the makeshift shelter in the office building on the edge of the city. I decide to build another probe with more of the debris from the collapsed room. It's a repeat of the process from the previous day. Eventually my mother comes in from the meeting with the city leadership. The news is harsh, almost all infrastructure in the cities nearby has taken the same hit. It's more damaging than the previous two cullings. One of the other two nations on the planet must have advanced far enough to warrant a greater bombardment than last time. A small ticker in the corner of my hud informs me that my probe in the mine has made a resource acquisition, and a fairly large one at that. At the rate it's gathering resources it should be ready to start the build within a few hours.

I query the information on the building process. The file I read informs me that it's a combination of nanites and matter to energy to matter conversion. The probe converts the resources to energy and feeds the energy-matter stream to a group of nanites which carefully assemble matter into the desired structure contained by a glowing cyan-blue field of energy. Once finished the opaque cyan field fades and the new structure is left standing completed.

The solid blue energy field is practically invulnerable and actually absorbs any energy directed at it feeding that into the construction process. Unlike the probes from the protoss in the game, my probes have to remain in place projecting the field and feeding energy to the process. They're also a bit stronger than their protoss counterpart. The converter is the ultimate garbage disposal. It sorts any resources placed in the processor into things it can recycle easily by breaking it into it's base components for the reconstruction processes and the rest of it which is just converted into energy.

While all of the structures can be built using pure energy to fuel the process, it actually consumes less resources to use stored matter to begin the process. As such the converter is something of a warehouse as well as a power generation facility and trash processor. I also learn from the file that it can remotely power the grid of power lines running through the city that are currently offline.

I turn to my mother, "Next meeting tell them to get crews on the powerlines. As soon as the cities' lines are cleared as safe I have a way to give us electricity" I tell her after finding out I can have a power station built. From the outside It looks like i've been sitting there staring off into space for the past hour as I read an invisible screen only I could see. Most of the damage to the lines is due to falling debris. The reason the power isn't on is because the power station about a mile away was completely obliterated off the face of the planet. I would just flip the switch and turn it on when the building was finished but I don't want anyone hurt if there are any downed wires that would become energized.

My power station is extremely efficient pulling energy from anything it safely can. There's even an underwater version of the building that will sink a geothermal tap into undersea vents. I resolve to start colonizing the ocean with these things as soon as I can. The first thing though, I want to build as soon as the powerstation is finished is an outpost. Outposts have some defensive capabilities that will set my mind a little more at ease at least as far as the local area is concerned. I want to get at least my nation covered before the wraith return in ten years if I can't get the other two nations to cooperate.

That's going to be a long term project. The rest of the day goes by quickly as I busy myself helping the rescue teams canvas the city for others who might have gotten trapped or buried beneath the rubble. I pause only briefly to send the second probe to assist the first when it flashes in the corner of my hud as complete. By the end of the day the probes have almost finished gathering the required material and should have the construction started by the time everyone is in bed for the night. Not bad, considering I am working with only two construction probes. It's late and I'm tired again so I allow myself to fall asleep.

In the morning I wake to find my siblings have decided that I make a very nice pillow, again. I gently move Merin, she's somehow managed to wrap her arms around my neck in the night. Sameth is snuggled in on my other side. He really worked hard yesterday moving rubble. I'm masking the fact that my enhanced senses give me an infrared view of the collapsed buildings helping me pinpoint anyone trapped within. While it might not work well if there is too much in the way blocking the heat signature I am able to quickly scan rubble piles for people buried beneath.

As such I've become something of a hero for how many people I've unearthed from the debris. It should make it easier when I reveal the new technology I'm planning to build.

A brief glance at the resource bar of my hud tells me that my ZPE is back to a hundred. I decide to go check the status of the converter in person. I can see the squat rectangular tower rising from the forest before I even reach the building. I'm not sure what I expected. It's a strange combination of the almost lego like blocks of blue-grey machine and the golden bronze artistic and elegant of the protoss, curving and angular at the same time. There's a door on the side of this structure recessed into the wall. The sides of the building have blueish crystal cut aways traveling up the sides in an almost circuitry like pattern.

A few feet from the building I encounter the same feeling of resistance indicating the presence of an energy shield. I get the feeling that if I were hostile the shield would be solid and hurt a great deal more to touch. Pushing through I walk up to the door. Inside the small room is a diagram of the facility on a touch screen with blinking lights. I press one labeled control center in a blocky script that while different than english or the language of my new home I can somehow read.

A flash of light and the door behind me opens to a spartan room lit with blue-green and white lighting accents set into the support columns, walls, and ceiling. Against the far wall there is a window opening to the forest outside. Just beyond I can see the edge of the city where a few fires still burn sending smoke into the clear blue sky of morning.

Underneath the window is a row of control panels with digital readings indicating the status of various parts of the system. Stepping forward into the room the lights go from a dim glow to an active state as the building seems to sense my presence and come to life. The window viewing the outside dims and a holographic is projected over the window showing a scan of the surrounding terrain. Overlayed is a light blue circle indicating the range of the converter's power broadcasting ability. A little under a quarter of the city closest to the forest is covered.

The power lines should be able to carry the energy back into the rest of the city. I check the resources gathered throughout the night by the diligent probes. I've amassed quite the reserve it's a lot compared to the cost of the probes but still not enough. I check the information available on the converter.

There are fusion reactors in the half of the structure that is underground. Above ground there are solar panels and wind turbines. Throughout the building are enormous capacitors storing the generated energy. On the roof there are lightning rods that channel the naturally generated electricity into the heavy duty capacitors for reuse. One of the more interesting facets of this building is the shield it's unique among the shields in that it is capable of switching to a mode that will channel the discharge from any energy weapons used against it into the capacitor. This comes at the cost of vulnerability to kinetic weapons while that mode is active. I'm generating plenty of energy for my planned building projects that sending enough to power the city outside the forest will be a negligible drain on my resources.

Deciding secrecy is better for the time being, I access the controls and order the shield to switch modes into a cloaking field. I drain enough ZPE from my own reserves to start another two probes. I have enough Psi whatever that is left for one more probe. I wonder how I'm going to get Psi when an information dialog pops into my hud from the corner. I bring it up into view being thankful that whoever designed this was courteous enough to design it so that these things didn't randomly pop up and block my vision. The information dialog informs me that Psi is how many units can be in my control at once exceeding that limit will cause units to shut down until more Psi is available. The information dialog tells me that I can augment my control by building outposts and control towers. The outposts are limited to twenty-five psi. The control towers start with a hundred but are individually upgradable for more psi.

I close the dialog thinking that it's time to build an outpost or control tower. Changing my mind about my earlier decision to go for an outpost first I decide to build a control tower farther back into the forest away from the city and give the AI a command to switch it into cloaked mode the moment it becomes operational. Satisfying myself that everything is in order I head back into the city for another day of working to reclaim the damaged areas.

By the end of the day I've managed to check the main power line between the tower and the rest of the city. Working with the crews to make sure the breakers are off for power lines running to damaged buildings until their wiring can be verified as undamaged or at least safe, I've managed to clear the lines leading to emergency facilities like the hospital and civil services like the fire and police department. When the last segment of the line is cleared as safe I signal the converter to start sending power into the lines I spent the day marking. I'm tight lipped about how I managed it, though I promise that as soon as the remaining power lines are deemed safe to restore power to, they can be reconnected to the grid without difficulty.

It takes another two days of painstaking work until the four drones have gathered enough resources to build the control tower. The converter facility is working on building the power modules but charging them is going to take two months unless I can find a way to give it more energy. Until then I am working with the power generated by the control tower's fusion reactors, solar panels and wind turbines along with the support of the zpe converter tower which I've placed the control tower just within range of.

The converter's scanner indicates there is a hot spot just under the surface about three miles away that could make a good source of geothermal. I mark the spot for later. I'll probably build a convertor there and another in between.


	2. 02: Gearing up

Life is slowly returning to normal here on Aiora I laugh somewhat to myself on discovering the name of the planet. So very close to the Aiur of the Protoss. I'm damned thankful that the Aiora version of me was somewhat reclusive and a downright wizard at the practical aspect of engineering, even before the accident where I had almost been crushed under a falling building.

The Aiora version of Amelius worked hard studying wanting to build something someday that could possibly protect us from the wraith. So of course when I told mum and the temporary council that if they gave me crews to check the power lines I could at least restore limited power, they didn't bug me for details assuming that I had somehow managed to repair one of the power plants or build a generator.

Truthfully, the lack of questions was probably a combination of my earlier behavior and the stress of leading a cleanup effort that you know is being mirrored across the planet. If anyone had looked for where the power was coming from they would be baffled. The ZPE converter had the ability to wirelessly transfer energy to receivers within range. these were what I had mounted on the poles and hooked up to the power lines.

It took about a day after I'd queued up the control tower for the structure to be completed, and with its completion the next level of buildings and the related information was unlocked. I read over the summary of each new building and I am glad now that I chose the tower over the outpost. I now know that all the outpost would have be capable of at the moment is long range scanners and providing a fixed twenty-five psi.

I'm eager to get away from the cleanup efforts, which are starting to shift from cleanup and rescue to repair and rebuild, and go explore my newest building so I tell my family I need a day off. I spend the whole morning hiking through the woods nearby before I walk right into the shield just inside of the cloak. Walking blindly through the cloaking field, I push my way through the spongy shield hidden beneath it. The tower is awe inspiring, and beautiful. Looking up at the blue-grey metal I can see hints of the golden protoss architectural ethos seamlessly merged with the newer design i'm starting to become familiar with.

I walk forward, heading towards a door that isn't readily apparent, but I know it's there. Appearing for all purposes to simply be another recessed section of the architectural design. The door slides smoothly open with barely a sound revealing a small chamber with another door opposite I recognize that the entrance has been setup to act as an airlock if necessary. Through the inner door is a moderately lit corridor revealing a bronze floor and aquamarine walls with bronze and blue-grey metal supports every few meters. The lighting is coming from triangular panels in the ceiling and glowing blue-white crystals slotted into holders in the walls each holder containing three arrays of seven flat crystals stacked vertically.

Whoever the original engineers and designers were of the technology I found myself in control of, they were pragmatists at their core. A people that believed firmly in functionality combined with beauty. While everything was designed to be aesthetically pleasing, it all had some functionality, nothing was purely decorative. There was nothing in the tower that didn't have a function or purpose no decorative vases or fake flowers sitting in the alcoves. Even the most utilitarian of things was a work of art. Each example of the awe inspiring technology before me was a work of art and beautiful.

The rooms on the first floor were mostly storage rooms and offices, there was a small exercise facility at the end of the hallway, and a set of moderately sized restrooms just outside of the exercise room between it and the offices. For the most part the rooms were mostly empty, containing only computer terminals and hookups for equipment that wasn't in place yet. Near the center of the floor was another transport booth like I had used at the power facility. Next to it was a set of stairs. Stepping into the booth I saw I could now transport between the tower and the power facility. The booth showed transporter location every seven floors. There were three individual booths located on the same level as the control room and another three on the floor labeled medical facilities.

Deciding to assuage my curiosity first, I tapped blinking dot for the control room first. A flash of light later and I exited the booth into an empty corridor. The only hint that I was on a different floor being the script written on the wall giving the floor number and corridor. Following the only path available, I find myself walking toward a set of large bronze sliding double doors with accented blue frosted crystal, the doors open on my approach.

The control center was a thing of beauty. Inside the room were a set of steps lit with glowing panels that spelled out brief warnings in the same foreign language that I could somehow read. The steps led up into a broad walkway with a large stained glass window of a crystal design at one end that had an empty area just in front where I could tell something was supposed to slot into the floor for an added functionality that wasn't currently available. At the other end was another set of stairs leading up to a huge window looking out into a balcony. These steps were also lit with glowing writing that read out a welcome to visitors and travellers, the steps gave notice that all who sought peace would be welcomed with open arms but those whose desires were less than honorable should beware and rethink their plans lest they be crushed.

Heading up the stairs bearing the welcome, to the left there is a set of stairs leading up to a walkway next to angled panels that pivot to allow entry to a conference room. To the right the stairs lead up into the main control center.

I take a moment to admire the large stained crystal window between the two sets of stairs. Just up the steps on either side of the large window there are doors leading out onto a balcony. On the far side of the control center across a walkway there's an office surrounded by clear sheets of crystal which I know are far stronger and tougher than ordinary glass from earth. Probably something similar to transparent aluminum as seen in Star Trek. Ignoring the office for now I check the consoles in the room. Above each is a holographic display. The consoles are an interesting merging of the two technologies as everything else has been. Both the protoss and the unfamiliar designs have a mental component built into them so that the person standing in front of the console need only think a command to bring up the desired interface. Though the standard push button technologies have been included as well for confirmation purpose to prevent someone from disabling main power by daydreaming.

Right now the only facility that is fully functional in the tower is the medical complex taking up several floors directly below the control room. Directly above the control room is a large empty bay with several platforms that jut out over a central area. At the base of the bay a section of floor panels retract to the control room below a few floors up and the ceiling does the same to reveal the clear blue sky above. Unfortunately for me it seems I don't have any vehicles in the bay at the moment. The designs are locked away under one of the required buildings.

I do have a few options available to me. I can either build a platform around the base of the control tower which will eventually allow me to turn this into a city-ship complete with star drive, or I can immediately start building manufacturing and research facilities around it making this a forever land bound control tower. Either way at the moment it is the seat of operations for the planet. Deciding to hold off on making that call for now I head back down to the control room and designate the hot springs and another location between there and the existing power plant as places for new power converters.

The control tower contains a more stable computer core and is able to keep track Psi controlled units at longer ranges taking the current four probes off my hands and tying them into it's systems. Not having them being directed by my own power anymore takes a load off my shoulders that I didn't realize was there.

There are living quarters in the tower for housing the command staff, and whatever scientists end up having labs in the tower. As it is there's probably enough space in the tower that I could house an eighth of the cities population. But i'm not quite comfortable just moving everyone into my shiny new tower. Even though I'm fairly certain I have absolute control over it's systems I really don't want to test that theory out if someone decides they want to try and take control. Afterall I'm only eighteen.

There is one more room I want to check located in roughly the middle of the tower. it's a circular room about two to three stories high. In the center of the room is a platform with cloudy white panels set into golden metal polished and carved with swirling decorative protoss designs. In the middle of the hexagonal dais is a throne-like chair made out of the grey metal. Set into the headrest are more cloudy white panels. The chair itself has an almost gel like covering that feels organic. Though I know the material will last for millennia without maintenance. Sitting down in the chair the back reclines and a foot rest comes out at an angle. The cloudy white paneling in the floor begins glowing a cyan blue.

In the armrests near where my hands sit there is a clear gel I can feel my fingers sinking into the gel. It doesn't feel slimy, and there seems to be some mechanism that draws excess moisture away from my hands keeping the interface comfortable. In spots the gel bubbles up forming buttons and there are lights that come on underneath though hard to see from my reclined position.

Somehow I instinctively know where to press on the hand controls, and just thinking about what I want brings up the screen on a holographic interface above my head. Messing with the interface I find out there are upgrades available for the tower complex. The first one on the list is labeled cybernetics core and has a 200 ZPE price tag. The description says it increases the number of units that can be controlled from the tower as well as unlocking two more buildings from my build list. I have enough resources, I queue the upgrade.

At least I have more Psi now. Plenty for a veritable army of probes for mining resources. I halfway wonder about using them to repair the city. My hud informs me that given the appropriate schematics they could easily rebuild the damaged sections. But I'm also considering that it might not be worth it to expend the effort repairing the current infrastructure if I can use the probes to build a new and more advanced infrastructure over the old one. I'm almost thirty percent of the way towards the required materials for the city ship platform add on to the tower, which will add corridors, housing for a stardrive and a power conduit base. Probably closer to forty-five percent if I use up all my stored ZPE from the power converter. There is still not much point in building an outpost given the tower has better long-range sensors. I cue up another thirty probes for resource gathering at other locations. With the control tower now directing them I feel a bit more comfortable about not micromanaging the probes myself. It's been programmed to keep them from being spotted for now.

Perhaps I can use them to build a few apartment towers during the night inside the city at a few of the areas that were leveled. Each of the smaller towers would have its own small medical facility for minor injuries which would take some of the pressure off the city hospital.

Making a snap decision I direct the sensors to give me a map of the city. Its an amazing feeling having the map downloaded into my head makes it seem like I can see everything about the city all at once. The computer can tell which areas are damaged and begins flagging the buildings based on how damaged they are. There are three locations within the city and under the area marked as within range of the power convertor where there is a large enough area and the buildings that stood there are damaged beyond repair. I decide to go ahead and build apartment complexes in those locations. The computer knows to wait until night time before moving the required probes into place.

I access the build menu once more. The three previous options are there but underneath them are three new buildings.

Academy - 275 ZPE  
Trains ground units and pilots for vehicles.

Research Lab - 500 ZPE  
Enables prototype development and research of alien technology as well as developing existing technology from theory. Examples of possible research include defensive and offensive weaponry for outposts.

Residential Tower - 150 ZPE  
Apartment complex with self contained arboretum and healthcare facilities. Provides living space for fifteen family units. Additional upgrades available to increase capacity.

The tooltip for each building lets me know that I have to place them within range of a power convertor or on a city ship platform. Except for the Residential Tower which has its own fusion reactor in a sublevel behind security doors. Each additional building requires some energy from the convertor slowing the production of the zero point modules which are basically large glowing crystal batteries. The facility doesn't actually charge the zpms, they're an excellent example of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. Instead it meticulously assembles new ZPMs by creating the required materials from energy or rematerializing the stored matter into the required shape. As long as I don't completely drain a ZPM it's still possible to recharge one.

After some more exploring I notice the time as a glance out a nearby window outside shows the sky is starting to get dark, and I head back to the transport booth and select the power facility. If I'd known I could just transport here using the booth at the power convertor I could have spent more time today exploring the tower. Most of my morning was spent hiking through the forest towards the tower.

Right now being close to any of the buildings is like having a quiet but comforting hum in the back of my mind. When i'm close to the probes I can sort of hear them beeping contentedly as they go about the carrying out my commands. It's more that a little disconcerting feeling that comforting hum fade as I leave the forest for the shelter where my family is staying.

Walking into the room I glance at my mother. From the expression on her face I immediately know something is wrong.

"What is it?" I ask.

"Sammeth wanted to help with the cleanup today." Edriss says looking dazed.

I move closer and prompt her to continue, "Tell me, I might be able to do something."

"He was standing there when the pile of rubble shifted. The construction driver didn't see him and the truck's mechanical arm, they were using it to pick up the heavier pieces of concrete, it upset the pile causing it to fall on Sammeth." Edriss said between sobs.

"He's still alive. Yes?" I ask worried.

"He's at the hospital down the road. His arms and legs were crushed." Edriss says.

Damn it! I curse in my head. There is no way I'm letting my little brother be crippled or worse die. I look my mother in the eyes. "Mom, I'm going to go see him." I tell her. "I'm not sure how but I know it's going to be alright? Okay?"

She gives a small nod.

"Merina is still here right?" Another nod. "Sam will be okay, look after Merina. I'll be back."

I leave the building making my way towards the hospital. Conditions have definitely improved since I started supplying power from the convertor hidden in the forest. Inside the main entrance I locate my brother's room and head down the hallway. Sammeth narrowly escaped having a crushed chest, or breaking his neck. Remembering my brief foray into medical school from my old life on earth before I switched majors I examine the chart. Both of his arms and legs are bandaged and immobilized. The crude x-ray shows the bones in his legs have been crushed beyond the hospitals ability to repair.

I don't know what to do. I can't move him to the medical facility in the control tower. While he's stabilized in the hospital bed the bone fragments could very easily rupture any of the major blood vessels if I move him now. I wonder if I can use the nanites in my own body to repair him like they did for me the first day I woke up. I will something to happen resting my hands on his stomach. I stand there hands on his chest and stomach for what feels like an hour and just when I'm about to give up my hud shows my ZPE level drop from a hundred to fifty the silvery pseudo liquid pools under my hands sinking into Sammeth's torso. My hands are frozen there as what must be at least half my entire stock of nanites leaves from my hands.

I feel emptier and maybe a bit hungry. Just as I'm really starting to worry the flow of nanites stops and my hands are suddenly free again as the last of the silvery liquid sinks beneath my brother's skin and the bruises start to instantly fade. The nanites must be clearing the painkillers and sleeping pills from his body as he moves his head.

Damnation, healing Sammeth is going to blow my cover. Part of the reason i've been so careful thus far was because of the attention that comes with appearing different. If i'd been an outside observer looking at this culture I might have assumed they practiced a form of shamanism given the appellation of the ancestors. However, I had the combined knowledge of my life on earth and my life here. Saying thanks to the ancestors before meals or any of the other little actions taken daily on the name of the ancestors was done in recognition of a race far older than the civilization on this planet.

In some ways it reminded me of the Xel'Naga who guided the Protoss before they were destroyed by their second creation the Zerg. While some things were different in the current situation, the parallel between the protoss and this planet was hard to ignore. I only hopped that the wraith would not be as prolific as the Zerg. I set aside my thoughts as I noticed Sammeth beginning to move in the hospital bed.

"What's that noise?" Sammeth said sitting up before looking at me. "Amelius?"

"What noise?" I said looking at him oddly.

"I thought I heard you talking." Sammeth yawned before looking down at his arms. "What happened?"

"You decided it would be a brilliant idea to get buried underneath a pile of rubble." I said tears at the edges of my eyes beyond happy that my little brother was healthy and safe.

"Oh," he said looking down, "I just wanted to help like you were. Hey, What's that humming?"

"Probably just the hospital equipment." I say.

"Sounds different, it's very faint." Sammeth said.


End file.
